Adult male Fundulus heteroclitus exposed to Cr(VI)

Cr(VI) is a common bioavailable toxic metal that can cause oxidative stress, DNA adducts, and perturb normal gene expression. Changes in gene expression are useful biomarkers of toxicant exposure that provide information about the health of an organism, its ability to adapt to its environment, and indicate potential toxicant-specific effects. Therefore, we developed a toxicology array to the estuarine sentinel species Fundulus heteroclitus, or mummichog. Adults males were exposed to Cr(VI) for 7-days at 0, 1.5 (NOEC), or 3 mg/L (LOEC). Livers were excised and RNA isolated. Adults are used in the laboratory experiments so that we can compare laboratory studies to fish caught at chromium-contaminated field sites. Cr(VI) altered the expression of 12 genes in adult liver, including hepatic growth factor activator, heart fatty acid binding protein, and complement component C3-2. Keywords: dose response Adult male mummichogs were exposed to potassium chromate at either 0, 1.5 (0.0288 mM), or 3 mg/L (0.0577 mM) Cr(VI) for 7-days. Each treatment group had 6 individually exposed fish in 3.8L plastic containers with static renewals every 48 hours. Mummichogs were housed at 25C in a 14/10 light/dark cycle at 18‰ salinity. At the conclusion of the exposures, livers were excised and placed in TRI-Reagent® for RNA isolation (Sigma Chemical Co, St. Louis, MO), and stored at -80C.